Every Breath you Take... Be Careful How You Delete Your Incriminating Files

Prosecutors recently recovered scores of deleted e-mail messages between former chief presidential secretary for national policy Byeon Yang-kyoon and former Dongguk University assistant professor Shin Jeong-ah. The news has rippled into the corporate sector, casting a new light on the security of personal and industrial information. One telecommunications company on Wednesday ordered its workers to delete data with permanent delete software when they go on long-term business trips or quit the job. Leakage of classified corporate information or private information could deal a hard blow to a company. Against this backdrop, some CEOs and workers have come up with their own unique privacy protection techniques, an idea encouraged by security experts. Here the Chosun Ilbo shares some privacy strategies.

◆ Privacy protection for individuals

① Store data on USB memory instead of hard disks

"A," the head of a state-run company, plugs a portable USB memory card into his office computer as soon as he turns it on every morning. The portable storage device contains all his work data including documents and personal e-mail. A switched to using USB memory instead of a hard drive in order to protect his privacy, afraid sensitive information could be exposed if someone were to hack into his computer through the company network.

② Receive e-mail but answer by phone

"B," a representative of a financial institution, uses his company’s e-mail system, but only to receive messages. When he needs to answer a message, he uses the phone or a different e-mail address. Why do that? Because of personal experience. When the Asian financial crisis hit Korea, B's firm fell under the scrutiny of prosecutors. "At the time, prosecutors confiscated all the computers, documents, even a diary," B said. "When I answer messages with the company e-mail system, the system keeps a record of all the messages back and forth, and that can cause problems."

③ Use non-company credit cards

Some bank employees use credit cards issued by other banks because they believe their company audit teams comb through employee credit card records to look for irregularities. The labor union of Kookmin Bank, the largest lender in Korea, once protested the reappointment of a CEO by publicizing the fact that some KB workers use credit cards issued by other banks because they are afraid that KB could investigate workers' credit records.

◆ Security measures for businesses

① Limit employee use of PCs and e-mail

In 2004, SK Telecom installed fingerprint scanners on every employee PC and designated individual LAN addresses for each computer. Now when an employee uses another worker's computer, his computer automatically locks itself. SK Telecom also adopted an iris scanner for visitors outside the offices of senior officials. This is to prevent unauthorized people from entering the offices to access corporate or personal information on executive computers. KT mandates that its employees use only the firm’s intranet e-mail to prevent data from being stored on PCs.

② Scrub data from old computers

LG Electronics has a department that is charged solely with deleting data stored on the computers of retired employees. The department scrubs data with special software or physically destroys the hard drives with strong magnets before the machines are refurbished and distributed to other workers. These steps are aimed at preventing classified information from leaking out. In 2005, a computer from a telecom company was sold in a second-hand market before its data was properly erased. Data from the PC was recovered, revealing company expense records for treating government officials.

(englishnews@chosun.com )